Coffee lovers will soon have four new establishments from which to enjoy their favourite brew in the new future, without having to worry about what to do with the kids.
Java Mama, Little Beans Cafe, Cafe O’Play Canada and Enjoy Cupcakes are all either open or will be soon. Permits for all four were issued last month.
Java Mama, located at 15 Circle Dr. in Campbell Park, offers gourmet coffee and tea, free Wi-Fi and a complete menu as well as a play area for children and classes for both kids and adults. Parenting classes including yoga and partner massage will also be offered.
Little Beans Cafe, at 103-51 Inglewood Dr. and Cafe O’Play at 10-90 McKenney Ave., are also kid friendly establishments, according to their websites. Cafe O’Play is geared towards parents with infants, offering coffee and light meals and a play area for the little ones. There is little information available about Little Beans Cafe, but similar franchises also offer kid-friendly environments with toys, classes and birthday party bookings.
The fourth entry into the local market is Enjoy Cupcakes at Gateway Village, which has been open since Oct. 11. The small company is growing quickly with a bakery in west Edmonton, a location in Kingsway Mall and a franchisee in Sherwood Park. Run by Lloyd and Tracey Linkiewich, the store offers a wide assortment of cupcakes, some of which have fillings, as well as bubble tea, which Lloyd said is scarce in St. Albert.
“When you look at the business information for St. Albert, it’s got the second-highest income, second to Fort McMurray, and there’s no one else selling bubble tea and custom cupcakes at least,” Lloyd said.
The last materials have been hauled away from the former Save-On-Gas location and the company responsible for its demolition is confident any possible contamination has been remediated.
The city issued a demolitions/alterations permit to Petrocom Construction in August to take down the small building on site, as well as remove the gas holding tanks from beneath the ground.
“Basically Save-On has decided to get out of the gas bar business,” said Petrocom project manager Tyler Baxendale.
Baxendale said crews detected no contamination at the site from fuel spillage, which has haunted former gas station sites in the city in the past.
He said the company did remove “maybe half-a-truckload” of earth as a precautionary measure to ensure the site was totally remediated.
